Google, Facebook to Be Ordered to Pay for Australian News Content
April 20 2020 - 4:30AM
Dow Jones News
By Mike Cherney
SYDNEY--Australia plans to require Alphabet Inc.'s Google and
Facebook Inc. to pay local media organizations for their content,
the latest development in a global debate over whether the tech
giants are unfairly benefiting from news articles that appear on
their platforms.
Details on how much the tech companies will need to pay are
still being decided. Australian government officials said Monday
that the country's competition regulator would determine how the
payments would be calculated, which the government plans to pass
into law in parliament.
"This is a battle worth fighting," Australian Treasurer Josh
Frydenberg said. "We believe this is crucial for the future
viability of our media sector."
Publishers have long sought compensation from Google and
Facebook, which collect ad revenue based on visits to their sites
and increase their traffic by including links to news articles.
In the past, the tech giants have resisted paying for content,
instead making donations through philanthropic arms and arguing
that publishers benefit by getting large amounts of traffic
directed to them.
They have softened their stance in recent months. Facebook in
2019 said it would pay some news organizations--in some cases
millions of dollars a year--to license their headlines and story
summaries for a news service. Google was also in talks with
publishers about licensing their content in a news product, The
Wall Street Journal reported in February. And Apple Inc. last year
launched a subscription-based app, Apple News+, which provides
access to articles from many magazines and newspapers, including
The Wall Street Journal.
Facebook on Monday said it was disappointed with the Australian
government's announcement, and Google said it sought to work
constructively with the Australian media industry. Both companies
were working toward a voluntary agreement regarding possible
compensation for news organizations and had met with publishers to
discuss the issue.
The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, a union for media
professionals in Australia, on Monday said it supported the
government's move and would scrutinize the details when they are
available.
Mr. Frydenberg said the country's competition regulator--which
was overseeing discussions regarding a voluntary agreement--was
pessimistic that a voluntary agreement would be reached. Australian
officials said a solution is needed soon given that economic
disruption from the coronavirus pandemic is putting fresh financial
pressure on local news organizations.
Some publishers, including News Corp, which owns The Wall Street
Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. and is also a dominant player
in Australian media, have stopped printing physical copies of local
Australian newspapers in the wake of the pandemic.
Mr. Frydenberg said the tech companies could be required to pay
for a fraction of the cost incurred by publishers for producing
content, or to make payments based on the value they receive from
using third-party content. He said the figure would be in the
millions of dollars, but declined to be more specific.
"Journalism is vital in a democracy, but journalism costs money
to produce," said Paul Fletcher, Australia's communications
minister.
Other countries have also sought to compel the big tech
companies to pay publishers for content. Spain passed legislation
to require Google to pay news outlets, but the company responded by
shutting down its local Google News service in 2014. Last year,
France sought to use a European Union copyright directive to compel
Google to pay to show previews of articles, but Google said it
would only display headlines in its news search results to avoid
paying.
Australia's conservative government, led by Prime Minister Scott
Morrison, has taken a tough stance toward tech companies in the
past. After last year's mosque shootings in Christchurch, New
Zealand, which left 51 people dead and was partly livestreamed on
Facebook, the government passed legislation that would penalize
social-media companies for not removing such violent content
quickly.
But Australian authorities have also taken an antagonistic
approach to the media. Last year, the Australian Federal Police
raided the offices of the Australian Broadcasting Corp., which is
publicly funded, and the home of a News Corp journalist. This
month, the country's High Court ruled that the warrant for the News
Corp raid was invalid.
James Glynn contributed to this article.
Write to Mike Cherney at mike.cherney@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 20, 2020 04:15 ET (08:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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